


What A Good Woman Does

by outofnothing



Category: Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Loss, Post-Credits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 00:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11702892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outofnothing/pseuds/outofnothing
Summary: At the end of the day, Diana still loves him and he is still gone.





	What A Good Woman Does

At the end of the day, the world cheers for victory, peace and love. She cheers with them because that is what she wanted. Her entire life, she unwittingly searched for war in hopes of eradicating it. This was her purpose. It was who she would become.

The smoke stayed in the air for days after the final battle. The air stuck to her skin and tasted like acid. They walked back to Paris soiled in sweat and blood, although it was hard to distinguish where it all came from.

One night around the campfire, Sammy wondered out loud if British Intelligence ever sent anyone looking for them. Diana refrained from scoffing.

As the campfire died and darkness enveloped the camp, a sting ripped through Diana’s ribs. She keeled over and gasped. It was as if the weight of the war pressed her lungs into her stomach. She only had one thought in her mind.

His eyes as he left her there.

The misplaced hope, the adamant bravery, and, of course, the yearning love. The crystal blue that charmed her that first day at the beach. She remembered thinking how especially blue they looked in the underground caves and how they almost glowed with the water. The blue turned electric in the dim candlelight in Veld. That night she traced her finger along his jawline, from his ear to his chin, then around his lips and finally to his brow. He blinked slowly, fighting off sleep.

“You are tired,” she whispered.

“I’m not,” he whispered back. He shifted his naked body against hers underneath the damp cotton sheets.

“Your eyes want to close. I can see it.”

“I want to stay awake as long as possible. As long as I’m with you.”

She smiled and blushed. No one has ever made her feel so vulnerable yet happy. It was a childish sort of happiness that bubbled from her chest to her lips.

“I love your laugh,” Steve said.

“You are very charming, Steve.”

“I try my best.”

She wasn’t sure if they stayed awake for another twenty minutes or two hours after that. Time didn’t matter. That night, there was no war, no Ares, no duty. It was just them.

Around the empty camp fire, she hugged her knees to her chest and waited until the throbbing in her chest dulled to a tolerable ache. But now and again, she heard leaves rustling and looked up, expecting Steve to come from the bushes.

“You seeing ghosts now too?” the Chief’s voice breaks through the night’s silence. Diana turns to look at him. She can make out his dark eyes under the brim of his hat.

“I don’t know. Where I come from, ghosts seldom appear outside of the land of the dead. Their shades are only brought to the living on rare circumstances.”

“I hope a war like this would be a rare circumstance.”

“Perhaps.”

“It’s okay to feel sad. The other guys, they don’t like to show it. But they feel it. I feel it.”

Diana nodded. The pain in her ribs subsided into a dull ache. She gripped the watch.

The silence was as deafening as the bombs.

The day after the armistice was signed, Diana went to get breakfast. She told herself it would have been Steve’s suggestion. It was a small restaurant outside of London that reminded her of the inn in Veld. There was an older couple basking in the November sun, a group of young men with solemn smiles, and a new family cradling their child. This was what they fought for, she reminded herself. Peace, goodness, and justice.

Love.

Then why, she thought to herself, did she feel so alone?

Later, when reports came of a mysterious woman helping Steve Trevor’s rag tag team take down Ludendorff’s chemical bombs, she insisted on staying anonymous. Only a select few, the Chief, Sammy, Charlie, and Etta, knew about Diana’s existence. “But you’re a hero,” Sammy said to her.

“We are all heroes,” Diana said. “We were all doing what was right.”

A distinct feeling of disgust shot through her body. She stopped Ares, yes, and they prevented Ludendorff’s poison gas from killing thousands of more people. But Steve had asked her to go with him. He had asked her to help him stop the gas because he knew Ares was not the end. He knew the nature of war, and it was not one evil man. Diana did not realize this until it was too late. She stood alone on that watchtower and did nothing as Steve and the other men rushed to their fates.

She thought about those few minutes often although it would always end with the blinding explosion in the sky and her hope for a happy future engulfed in those flames.

One hundred years later, she has breakfast at the same café in London. She sits across from an empty chair because no one has yet to fill his place in her heart. She thinks that if he heard her say that, he would nod slowly and quizzically say, “Wow. That’s quite the compliment.” But when one has lived quite as long as Diana, with a majority of her life so full of love, nurture, and compassion, such a statement is not as ridiculous.

She smiles softly, engrossed in her own imagination.

At the end of the day, Diana still loves him and he is still gone.


End file.
